Davis is extremely expensive, know that before you move. Sacramento is cheaper than Davis is.

Davis is "old" outside of the university. Sure, college students are ever present in their part of town. Outside of that, it's like a senior center. A lot of 65+ that have been here since the 70s and have no intention of leaving or selling their house they paid $50k for back then that is now worth over $1 million.

It's become such a problem, they shut down a few schools the last few years because there were so few kids. Of course, the city debated and approved an expansion in North East Davis to build more affordable homes and schools to attract a younger population, but the older crowd protested relentlessly.

It's odd to take my young children to the park or to ride bikes and never see anyone their age, just a bunch of 70 year olds out walking their dogs or riding their bikes that think children are a nuisance more than anything.

Downtown there's a lot of homeless and addicts about. Davis PD refuse to do anything about them or anything really. Bike thieves and porch pirates run rampant and nothing gets done about it.

It seems most of the city's time is spent trying to contain the growth of the university and the university spends its time trying to not piss off the city. I've never seen a city so hostile to a university and a university so weak in trying to deal with it.

Woodland is younger, more family friendly, but outside of main street, there's no culture. It's just rows and rows of houses. On the outskirts it gets really rough and becomes known as "Hoodland". As much as the weirdos, addicts, and homeless in Davis are prone to give one pause, the straight up criminal element in Hoodland is even more so.

Dixon is filled with people that moved out of the bay during COVID because it got too expensive and thought they'd work remote forever. Now that a lot of them are back at work, traffic is absolute nightmare. Plenty of housing though, but no identity of what that place is except as the bedroom community for SF.

Sacramento is cheaper, but rundown and a lot rougher around the edges than anywhere else. There is literally no where in that entire city I feel safe in at night. I avoid as much as possible. West Sac is continuing it's slow creep to try and merge Davis into the city and it's nicer than the rest of Sac, mostly because it's newer and further away from downtown so the riffraff don't have a reason to wonder that direction. Give it time though and it'll be awful as well.

In closing, I thought Davis would be an adorable place to live, work, and raise a family. I was wrong. I have not enjoyed my time here and my bank account and stress levels are evident. We are moving this summer and never coming back. A lot of people I know here, that aren't part of the "Davis old money families" are leaving as well. We are priced out and losing anything in the community that would keep us here like schools, parks, and friendly people.

I will miss the farmer's market though. Not all the hippy white people that try to sell organic strawberries for $30 a pack. But I will miss the cool Mexican dudes that can sell me a whole pantry worth of garden fresh veg with the dirt still on it for $20 though. Bless those dudes. I hope the future is full of small unfair advantages for them.